You read all food labels and stay away from artificial ingredients. You nosh on plenty of whole fruits and vegetables daily and squeeze in some lean protein at every meal. But what about the ingredients lurking in that gluten-free pasta you’re about to cook? You may be putting yourself at risk without even knowing it.
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There’s a certain level of trust we put in the hands of food manufacturers. But it seems an antiquated law may be allowing them to slip in new ingredients without prior approval from the FDA. The Food Additives Amendment, which has been around since the 1950s, allows manufacturers to self-proclaim ingredients “generally recognized as safe†(or GRAS), after which they can be used in products without any special warnings on the packaging.
The Center for Public Integrity examined this amendment in a recent article that calls out lupin, a legume related to peanuts that’s being used in a variety of foods without any indication that it’s a potential allergen. It seems to be especially common in gluten-free foods, and for anyone with peanut allergies, this is pretty terrifying.
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Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., author of Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety, says that it’s not exactly true that GRAS ingredients are completely unmonitored by the FDA, noting that one way an ingredient can earn this label is to be in the food supply for a long time without “evidence of harm.†And as far as brand-new ingredients go, food-safety expert Barry Parsons says that manufacturers are supposed to get FDA approval to declare them GRAS. The thing is, it’s not required for companies to do this—and therein lies the loophole.
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So should you swear off packaged food altogether? That’s not necessary, say experts. For one thing, the FDA requires manufacturers to specifically state when foods include any of the eight recognized allergens that cause 90 percent of allergic reactions in the United States. This includes peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, wheat, and soy products. “Lupin could turn up on the allergen list down the line,†says Parsons. Still, for the time being, it’s not.
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Plus, while food manufacturers technically could proclaim an ingredient GRAS without getting FDA approval, they have little reason to. “Any organization worth their salt would never put an ingredient out there that’s going to cause harm,†says Tarka, adding, “I think we have the safest food supply in the world.â€
Still, if this is something that concerns you, it can’t hurt to eat more whole foods—particularly since it can help make your diet more nutritious at the same time.